on losing money

one of the dumb things i did on the initial page about the blo.gs sale is just put the overall expense and income figures for the site, without listing the monthly net income (which is there now). i know better than to throw out numbers like that, and it has certainly influenced the numbers that people have thrown back at me. (one somewhat remarkable thing is how many people have picked the same number.)

i have a hard time writing and talking about this because the notion of not talking about money is so deeply ingrained in me. this came up in conversation with my parents last weekend, when my mom was talking about a neighbor who was very free with how much their kids made. i’m pretty sure my parents haven’t known how much i make since i graduated from college.

in any case, it should be pretty apparent that “losing” money is not a big deal for me. there are people in the world who put the accumulation of money at or near the center of their life’s agenda. i’m not one of those people. (and somehow i keep falling ass-backwards into it. go figure.)

comments

I feel quite the same way about "losing" money and time. I enjoy spending my time on projects to help others out. Someday I want to be financially independent enough to be able to be a full time charitable worker. I don't want to work for a charity organization to earn a living, because then the joy and freedom of it would be lost.

From a business perspective, throwing out a number (especially such a low number) would be considered a "mistake," and inevitably influenced the offers, as you noticed. The thought that you would be willing to accept a few thousand dollars in exchange for blo.gs made it seem like blo.gs was seriously under-valued, given how many blogs use the thing by default.

But I think releasing that number was a good idea, because I'm guessing it invited offers (or potential offers) from individuals as well as companies, people dedicated to the idea and to the community who would gladly invest a few thousand dollars and a lot of their own time to keep a valuable service running and in trustworthy hands. It seems almost as likely that you wouldn't get offers from big and (in contrast) trustworthy companies like Yahoo!, and your highest offers would be from smaller outfits that just want to exploit blo.gs's place in the community and technological infrastructure. In that scenario, I would bet that you'd be willing to accept less money if it meant that blo.gs would be run by someone who would act respectfully and responsibly.

I and, it sounds like, several other like minded individuals seriously considered making an offer. I decided it wasn't feasable for me, but I made sure to inform my friends at several capable, responsible companies that blo.gs deserves a steward. I think Yahoo! is an excellent choice.